After 3 decades justice has been served to 1984 Sikh massacre victims. Needless to say right from day one, everybody knew who was behind the pogrom. But in the same vein, doesn’t everyone know who was behind the 2002 Gujrat pogrom? So, when will the victims get justice?

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The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, also known as the 1984 Sikh Massacre, was a series of organised pogroms against Sikhs in India by anti-Sikh mobs (notably Congress Party members) in response to the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.Independent sources estimate the number of deaths at about 8,000 – 17,000. Official Indian government reported about 2,800 Sikhs were killed in Delhi.

Similarly, the 2002 Gujarat riots were a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Following the initial incident there were further outbreaks of violence in Ahmedabad for three months; statewide, there were further outbreaks of violence against the minority Muslim population for the next year.

According to official figures, the riots ended with 1,044 dead, 223 missing, and 2,500 injured. Of the dead, 790 were Muslim and 254 Hindu. The Concerned Citizens Tribunal Report estimated that as many as 1,926 may have been killed.[1] Other sources estimated death tolls in excess of 2,000.[15] Many brutal killings and rapes were reported on as well as widespread looting and destruction of property. The Chief Minister of Gujarat at that time, Narendra Modi, was accused of initiating and condoning the violence, as were police and government officials who allegedly directed the rioters and gave lists of Muslim-owned properties to them.

Though officially classified as a communalist riot, the events of 2002 have been described as a pogrom by many scholars, with some commentators alleging that the attacks had been planned, with the attack on the train was a “staged trigger” for what was actually premeditated violence. Other observers have stated that these events had met the “legal definition of genocide,”or referred to them as state terrorism or ethnic cleansing.

Instances of mass violence include the Naroda Patiya massacre that took place directly adjacent to a police training camp;[30] the Gulbarg Society massacre where Ehsan Jafri, a former parliamentarian, was among those killed; and several incidents in Vadodara city.

Scholars studying the 2002 riots state that they were premeditated and constituted a form of ethnic cleansing, and that the state government and law enforcement were complicit in the violence that occurred. But when will the kith and kin of Gujrat victims get justice?

Gothra train incident is probed and the needful is done. One wrong can’t be an excuse for condoning another. Why then BJP is shouting and highlighting 1984 killing and blaming Congress? Their shouting justifies muslims shouting for punishment to 2002 riot engineers. The Indira Gandhi killers were legally dealt with. None should have taken the law in hand against the Sikhs. Same applies to Gujrat. Gothra incident should have been left to BJP government. There was no reason to riot taking the law in hand. Those who believe in taking the law in hand are anti national and anti constitution elements. They must be brought to justice.

If Gothra train and Indraji’s assassination had to be answered by pogroms committed on innocent civilians, as justified by Ankit above, it simply means that MSY-type BJP/RSS guys/gals maybe pre-planning a repeat of 2002. This pre-empted planned operation will simply confirm why security personnel, mostly Hindus, are being targeted/threatened/forewarned. But to me, it will be a deflection to take the plea that to conduct the election, the BJP-RSS sarkar needs to take extreme measures of emergency, curfew, selective imprisoning, etc. The bottom economic-level civilians from all communities would lose lives and BJP will win in 2019 PMO. Beware and assist the Mahaghatbandan of all the opposition parties, regional and central.